The marketing chief's rare attack on a
rival comes as Samsung prepares to launch the Galaxy S4 in New York tonight.

The two firms are locked in a bitter battle for smartphone domination after Samsung overtook Apple in 2012 in overall sales. The tech giants are also facing off in courts around the world in a series of patent disputes.

A GALACTIC BATTLE

Samsung will take the wraps off its
Galaxy S4, after a broad marketing campaign that has helped drive
pre-launch speculation and hype to Apple-like proportions.

The launch --
the first time Samsung has chosen to host a global Galaxy debut in the
United States -- is deemed critical to propelling Samsung deeper into
Apple's home turf.

Schiller's remarks also came a day
after Android architect Andy Rubin stepped down, after having built the free,
open-source software into the platform of choice for mobile phone
manufacturers around the world.

Samsung had 30.3 percent of the
smartphone market in 2012, up from 19 percent a year earlier. Apple's
share was 19.1 percent last year, up from 18.8 percent in 2011.

However, Schiller said he believes the iPhone offers a better experience.

'Android is often given as a free replacement for a feature phone and the experience isn't as good as an iPhone,' he told the Wall Street Journal.

He said one of Androids biggest problems was the amount of time it takes to set up.

'When you take an Android device out of
the box, you have to sign up to nine accounts with different vendors to
get the experience iOS comes with,' he said.

'They don't work seamlessly
together.'

Schiller
told Reuters that Google's own research showed the vast majority of
Android users were stuck on older versions of the software, and that
Samsung's new phone itself may debut with a year-old operating system
that will need updating.

'With their own data, only 16 percent of
Android users are on year-old version of the operating system,' he
said.

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'Over 50 percent are still on software that is two-years-old. A
really big difference.'

Schiller said fragmentation, or the host of customized versions of Android in the marketplace, poses a problem for consumers.

Is his bark worse than his bite? Apple's Phil Schiller has launched an unprecedented attack of arch rivals Samsung, claiming its users are running out of date software

Every version of Android's operating
system update has to be tested to ensure a good fit for a multiplicity
of handset makers before it can be widely released by the handset
makers, which slows updates.

That's because some manufacturers, such as
Amazon.com Inc, employ heavily customized versions.

'And that extends to the news we are
hearing this week that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is being rumored to ship
with an OS that is nearly a year old,' he said. 'Customers will have to
wait to get an update.'

Schiller pointed to multiple research
from third parties that showed that people who have iOS devices actually
use them more than people who own Android devices, and more than half
of iOS users are using the latest version of the software.

THE SMARTPHONE BATTLE IN NUMBERS

Apple remains the most valuable
technology company today, with a $137.1 billion cash pile, or the
equivalent of just under the gross domestic product of Hungary.

But Samsung knocked Apple off its perch
atop the global smartphone arena in 2012, and continues to chip away at
its market share with a combination of aggressive marketing, rapid
technology adoption and boundary-pushing designs.

That onslaught, coupled with growing
uncertainty about whether the U.S. giant can sustain growth in coming
years, has contributed to a 30 percent decline in Apple's stock since
its September peak.

Samsung had 30.3 percent of the
smartphone market in 2012, up from 19 percent a year earlier. Apple's
share was 19.1 percent last year, up from 18.8 percent in 2011.

That rapid ascendancy was made possible
partly by Android, the software Google Inc launched just a few years ago
but is now the world's most-used smartphone platform. IDC expects
shipments of Android tablets to exceed those of the iPad in 2013.

Apple's iPhone 5 (left) is locked in battle with the Samsung Galaxy S3 (right) which is set to see a new version unveiled tonight

He also said that Apple's internal
research shows four times as many consumers are switching to iOS from
Android than the other way.

'At Apple we know that it's not just
enough to have products pumped out in large numbers,' he said.

'You have
to love and use them.

'There is a lot of data showing a big disparity
there.'

Google declined to comment. Samsung did not respond to a request for comment.

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Apple in unprecedented attack on Samsung and Google: Marketing chief claims majority of Android users are stuck on 'two year old
software'